Aunt Mabel Suggests…

Ever notice that the NYTimes.com most-emailed list is slanted toward an older demographic? Maybe because only folks over a certain age—like our Aunt Mabel—still use the email tool. Here’s a quick, annotated guide to what Grandma and Grandpa thought you might be interested in from NYTimes.com …

1. The only thing that could knock Mark Bittman off the top 10 list? The Times’ newest campaign! Matt Richtel has struck Mabel oil with the driving-and-texting series. Which leads us to wonder: Perhaps the Times should dedicate more energy to campaigns like this. We’re not discussing the Pulitzer-pushing types of investigative pieces that clearly take months and months and months to prepare for. But over the last week, Richtel has been on this list three times because of this series. A little tabloid mentality can only help! Mabel’s a fan.

2. And there’s Bittman. And uh-oh! We just got our Magazine preview email for the upcoming Sunday magazine from the Times publicity department. And what’s that we smell? Oh, yes, it is Future Mabel Fodder! “We eat, therefore we watch. Michael Pollan stirs the pot with a look at our culinary state of affairs and America’s addiction to cooking as a spectator sport. Pollan examines what we have lost as we have changed our relationship with cooking.”

3. Listen to your gut! It’ll tell you when you’re about to be blown into pieces because of an I.E.D.

4. Haaretz editor talks Obama and Israel and why the silence!

5. Another good one! You can be a hostess in Japan.

6. Merce Cunningham obit, which got a lot of nytimes.com play yesterday.